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Spain covers most of the Iberian Peninsula in the southwest of Europe, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Much of the interior is a high, dry plateau called the Meseta, with Madrid right in the middle. The country also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, and two small cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla.
For almost 800 years, from 711 to 1492, Muslim rulers held part of Spain: at first nearly all of it, and in the end only the kingdom of Granada. They left behind masterpieces such as the Alhambra in Granada and the great mosque of Córdoba. In 1492 Spain became the base for Columbus's voyages, and within a century it ruled an empire that stretched across the Americas and into Asia.
Today Spain is a constitutional monarchy of about 50 million people. It is one of the world's favourite holiday destinations, loved for its beaches, its art, its festivals and a relaxed way of life built around food, family and time spent outdoors.
Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Christian kings all shaped Spain. From a patchwork of kingdoms it became a world empire, lived through a civil war and a long dictatorship, and then built one of Europe's young democracies.
During their war with Carthage, Roman troops landed at Empúries on the Catalan coast. Over the next two centuries Rome conquered the whole peninsula, which it called Hispania, and left behind roads, bridges, aqueducts and the Latin language.
A Muslim army led by Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed from North Africa and defeated the Visigothic kingdom. Within a few years most of the peninsula was under Muslim rule, known as al-Andalus.
Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon married in secret. Their union joined Spain's two largest Christian kingdoms and laid the foundations of the Spanish state.
In January Isabella and Ferdinand captured Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain. That summer they sponsored Christopher Columbus, who reached the Caribbean in October. In the same year Spain's Jews were ordered to convert or leave.
Ferdinand Magellan's expedition left Spain in 1519. Magellan was killed in the Philippines, and Juan Sebastián Elcano, a Basque sailor, brought the ship Victoria home in 1522, completing the first voyage around the world.
King Philip II moved his royal court to Madrid, then a modest town in the centre of the country. Apart from a few years when the court was in Valladolid (1601 to 1606), Madrid has been the capital ever since.
Philip II sent a great fleet to invade England. It was beaten off by the English navy and then wrecked by storms around Scotland and Ireland.
Miguel de Cervantes published the first part of Don Quixote, the story of a man who reads so many tales of knights that he sets out to become one. It is often called the first modern novel.
Napoleon's troops occupied Spain and put his brother Joseph on the throne. On 2 May 1808 the people of Madrid rose up, a scene later painted by Goya. The war ended with the French driven out in 1814.
After a short war with the United States, Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. The defeat, called 'the Disaster' in Spain, ended its overseas empire in the Americas and Asia.
An army uprising against the elected Republic started a bitter civil war. It ended in 1939 with the victory of General Francisco Franco, who then ruled Spain as a dictator.
General Franco died on 20 November 1975. Two days later Juan Carlos I was proclaimed king, and he helped lead the country's peaceful move to democracy.
On 6 December 1978 Spaniards voted in a referendum for a democratic constitution that is still in force. 6 December is now a national holiday, Constitution Day.
On 1 January 1986 Spain and Portugal joined the European Economic Community, which later became the European Union.
A big year for Spain: Barcelona held the Summer Olympics, Seville hosted a world fair, Expo '92, and the first high-speed AVE train line opened between Madrid and Seville.
Euro notes and coins replaced the Spanish peseta, which had been the national currency since 1868.
Spanish food is built on olive oil, garlic, fresh vegetables, fish and cured pork, and every region has its own specialities. Lunch, eaten around 2 pm, is the main meal of the day: a primer plato (first course, often vegetables, soup or rice), a segundo plato (meat or fish) and a postre (dessert). Dinner comes late, often after 9 pm, and between meals people meet in bars for tapas, small plates shared with a drink.
Rice cooked in a wide, shallow pan with olive oil, chicken, rabbit, green beans, large white beans and saffron. The original Valencian recipe has no seafood and no chorizo.
Paella is the Valencian word for frying pan: the dish is named after the pan it is cooked in. The slightly crispy rice stuck to the bottom, called socarrat, is the best part for many Valencians.
A cold, refreshing soup of raw tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, garlic, olive oil and vinegar, blended until smooth. In summer it is often drunk from a glass.
A thicker, creamier cousin of gazpacho, made mainly of tomatoes, bread, garlic and olive oil, served cold and topped with chopped hard-boiled egg and cured ham.
A thick, round omelette of eggs and potatoes slowly fried in olive oil, often with onion. It is eaten warm or cold, as a tapa, a sandwich filling or a light supper.
Whether a tortilla should contain onion is one of Spain's favourite food arguments.
Toasted or fresh country bread rubbed with ripe tomato, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. In Catalonia it goes with almost every meal.
Prawns cooked in plenty of olive oil with sliced garlic and a little dried chilli, served sizzling in a small clay dish with bread to mop up the oil.
Tender boiled octopus cut into slices, sprinkled with coarse salt and paprika and drizzled with olive oil, traditionally served on a round wooden plate.
A rich, warming stew of large white beans (fabes) slowly cooked with chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage) and pork.
A hearty stew of chickpeas, vegetables and several kinds of meat. It is traditionally served in stages: first the broth as a noodle soup, then the chickpeas and vegetables, then the meats.
Cured ham from the black Iberian pig, sliced paper-thin by hand. The most prized kind, jamón ibérico de bellota, comes from pigs that feed on acorns in open oak woodland.
A whole leg is held in a stand called a jamonero while it is carved, and good ham carvers are respected professionals.
A firm cheese made from the milk of Manchega sheep, with a zigzag pattern on its rind. Only cheese from its protected area of origin in La Mancha may use the name.
Chunks of fried potato served with a spicy red sauce, and often with garlic mayonnaise as well. One of the most popular tapas in the country.
A chilled custard flavoured with lemon peel and cinnamon, topped with a thin layer of sugar that is burnt until it forms a glassy crust.
It is traditionally eaten on 19 March, Saint Joseph's Day, which is why Catalans also call it crema de Sant Josep.
Long, ridged sticks of fried dough dipped into a cup of thick, hot chocolate. People eat them for breakfast, as an afternoon snack, or after a long night out.
A nougat of almonds, honey, sugar and egg white, eaten all over Spain at Christmas. Turrón de Alicante is hard with whole almonds, and turrón de Jijona is soft and made with ground almonds.
A sweet, milky-looking drink made from tiger nuts (chufas), small tubers grown near Valencia, served ice cold in summer. Valencians dip long soft buns called fartons into it.
Spain's cities are wonderfully different: Roman walls, Moorish palaces, Gothic cathedrals and bold modern architecture, often within a short train ride of each other.
The capital and largest city, in the very centre of the country. Grand boulevards, world-famous art museums and a nightlife that starts very late.
Spain's second city and the capital of Catalonia, a Mediterranean port famous for the fantastical buildings of Antoni Gaudí.
A sunny city on the Mediterranean, the home of paella, with a long park running through the old bed of the Turia river.
The capital of Andalusia, a city of orange trees, flamenco and whitewashed lanes, and the port from which Spain's fleets once sailed to the Americas.
Once an industrial port, now a showcase of modern architecture on the Nervión river, with an old town full of pintxo bars.
An elegant seaside city wrapped around a shell-shaped bay, famous among food lovers for its pintxo bars and top restaurants. In Basque it is called Donostia.
A granite city in the green, rainy northwest and the end of the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route to the tomb of Saint James.
A walled hilltop city above a bend of the Tagus river, where Christians, Muslims and Jews lived side by side for centuries. The painter El Greco made it his home.
In the 10th century it was the capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba, which ruled most of Spain, and one of the largest cities in Europe. Its lanes are known for flower-filled patios.
The capital of the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, at the foot of the snowy Sierra Nevada. Many bars here still give a free tapa with each drink.
The lively capital of the Costa del Sol and the birthplace of Pablo Picasso, with beaches right next to the city centre.
The capital of the Balearic Islands, on the island of Mallorca, with a huge Gothic cathedral facing the sea.
Antoni Gaudí's great basilica, begun in 1882 and still being built. In 2025 it became the tallest church in the world, and its central tower of Jesus Christ reached its full height of 172.5 m in 2026. The Nativity façade and the crypt are part of UNESCO's Works of Antoni Gaudí.
UNESCO World HeritageA hilltop fortress and palace of the Nasrid sultans of Granada, with rooms of carved plaster, tiled walls, courtyards and fountains. Tickets often sell out, so book ahead.
UNESCO World Heritage
Begun as a great mosque in 785 and turned into a cathedral in 1236. Inside, a forest of columns holds up rows of striped red and white double arches.
UNESCO World Heritage
The largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and home to the tomb of Christopher Columbus. Its bell tower, the Giralda, was once the minaret of the mosque that stood here.
UNESCO World Heritage
One of the world's great art museums, opened in 1819, with masterpieces by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco and Bosch. It stands inside the World Heritage Site 'Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, a Landscape of Arts and Sciences', listed in 2021.
UNESCO World Heritage
A museum of modern art designed by the architect Frank Gehry and opened in 1997. Its curving walls are covered in thousands of thin titanium plates that shine in the light.
The goal of the pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago and the traditional burial place of Saint James. On special days a giant incense burner, the Botafumeiro, swings high across the church.
UNESCO World Heritage
A towering Gothic cathedral, known as La Seu, on the waterfront of Palma. Antoni Gaudí redesigned parts of its interior in the early 1900s.
A group of futuristic white buildings, mostly by the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava, with a science museum, an opera house, a planetarium and the largest aquarium in Europe.
Spain's national anthem, the Marcha Real, has no official lyrics. As of 2026, it is one of only three national anthems in the world without them, along with those of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
On New Year's Eve, Spaniards eat one grape at each of the twelve strokes of midnight for good luck. Millions watch the clock of the Puerta del Sol in Madrid on television to keep time.
A plaque in Madrid's Puerta del Sol marks Kilometre Zero, the point from which distances on Spain's main national roads are measured.
Spain's highest mountain, Teide (3,715 m), is a volcano on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, not on the mainland.
Guinness World Records lists Sobrino de Botín in Madrid as the oldest restaurant in the world, open since 1725. Some historians say the present restaurant only dates from 1865.
Every year on the last Wednesday of August, thousands of people pelt each other with ripe tomatoes in the town of Buñol, near Valencia, at a festival called La Tomatina.
As of the 2020s, Spain is the world's largest producer of olive oil.
Spaniards traditionally have two surnames: the first surname of their father and the first surname of their mother. Women keep their own surnames when they marry.
The daisy-shaped Chupa Chups lollipop logo was designed in 1969 by the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.
As of 2025, Spanish is the second most spoken native language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese, with more than 500 million native speakers.
Work on the Sagrada Família began in 1882. As of 2026, it is the tallest church in the world, even though it is still not finished.
Spain has two cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, so it shares a land border with Morocco.
Pronunciation is written the way it sounds; the capital letters show where the stress goes. Audio is coming soon.
Restaurants usually serve lunch from about 1 pm to 4 pm and dinner from about 8 pm to 11:30 pm. Arrive at 7 pm and you may find the kitchen closed.
On weekdays many restaurants offer a fixed-price lunch of three courses, often with bread and a drink. It is usually the best value meal of the day.
Most shops open from about 10 am to 9 pm, but Sunday is the normal day for shops and businesses to close. Some smaller shops also close for a few hours in the afternoon, especially in summer.
Tips are not obligatory in Spain. Leaving some small change, or about 5 to 10 percent for good service in a restaurant, is appreciated.
Friends and family usually greet each other with a light kiss on each cheek, first leaning to your left so that right cheeks touch. When you first meet someone in a formal setting, a handshake is fine.
The AVE high-speed trains link the big cities fast: Madrid to Barcelona takes about two and a half hours, and Madrid to Valencia less than two hours.
Popular places such as the Alhambra in Granada and the Sagrada Família in Barcelona sell timed tickets that often run out days or weeks ahead, especially in spring and summer.
Inland Andalusia, around Seville and Córdoba, can be extremely hot in July and August. Sightsee in the morning, rest in the afternoon like the locals, and carry water.
Andorra
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